text: An initial focus of Atalla's research was to solve the problem of silicon surface states. At the time, the electrical conductivity of semiconductor materials such as germanium and silicon were limited by unstable quantum surface states, where electrons are trapped at the surface, due to dangling bonds that occur because unsaturated bonds are present at the surface. This prevented electricity from reliably penetrating the surface to reach the semiconducting silicon layer. Due to the surface state problem, germanium was the dominant semiconductor material of choice for transistors and other semiconductor devices in the early semiconductor industry, as germanium was capable of higher carrier mobility.
  He made a breakthrough with his development of the surface passivation process. This is the process by which a semiconductor surface is rendered inert, and does not change semiconductor properties as a result of interaction with air or other materials in contact with the surface or edge of the crystal. The surface passivation process was first developed by Atalla in the late 1950s. He discovered that the formation of a thermally grown silicon dioxide (SiO) layer greatly reduced the concentration of electronic states at the silicon surface, and discovered the important quality of SiO films to preserve the electrical characteristics of p–n junctions and prevent these electrical characteristics from deteriorating by the gaseous ambient environment. He found that silicon oxide layers could be used to electrically stabilize silicon surfaces. He developed the surface passivation process, a new method of semiconductor device fabrication that involves coating a silicon wafer with an insulating layer of silicon oxide so that electricity could reliably penetrate to the conducting silicon below. By growing a layer of silicon dioxide on top of a silicon wafer, Atalla was able to overcome the surface states that prevented electricity from reaching the semiconducting layer. His surface passivation method was a critical step that made possible the ubiquity of silicon integrated circuits, and later became critical to the semiconductor industry. For the surface passivation process, he developed the method of thermal oxidation, which was a breakthrough in silicon semiconductor technology.
  Atalla first published his findings in BTL memos during 1957, before presenting his work at an Electrochemical Society meeting in 1958, the Radio Engineers Semiconductor Device Research Conference. The semiconductor industry saw the potential significance of Atallas surface oxidation method, with RCA calling it a "milestone in the surface field." The same year, he made further refinements to the process with his colleagues Eileen Tannenbaum and Edwin Joseph Scheibner, before they published their results in May 1959. According to Fairchild Semiconductor engineer Chih-Tang Sah, the surface passivation process developed by Atalla and his team "blazed the trail" that led to the development of the silicon integrated circuit. Atalla's silicon transistor passivation technique by thermal oxide was the basis for several important inventions in 1959: the MOSFET (MOS transistor) by Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs, the planar process by Jean Hoerni at Fairchild Semiconductor.